Article on the Interpretation of EU Private Law Published

This question was the subject of a colloquium organized by the Ernst von Caemmerer Foundation in cooperation with Goethe University Frankfurt am Main and the European Law Institute in Vienna. The present collection, edited by Blaurock and Maultzsch, Uniform Sales Law and the Unification of Legal Application, 2017, documents the presentations given there, which addressed the issue using the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods and the private law of the European Union as examples. The contributions highlight potential solutions arising, among other things, from the approach of judicial comparative law and the specific characteristics of the autonomous interpretation of inter- and supranational law. In doing so, they take into account both the perspectives of national and supranational jurisdictions as well as the particularities of arbitration proceedings. Together with the discussion reports, which are also included, this provides a comprehensive picture of the current state and future prospects of research.

Prof. Rösler’s article “Das Desiderat einer horizontalen Auslegung in der Rechtsprechung der mitgliedstaatlichen Gerichte zum EU-Privatrecht” (The Need for Horizontal Interpretation in the Case Law of Member State Courts on EU Private Law) can be found on pp. 119–138. If appropriately supported by legal scholarship, a horizontal interpretation of Union law could make an important contribution to the European legal system. This need not imply a renationalization of case law on Union law, nor would it impair the proven cooperative relationship between the ECJ and national courts, weaken the integrative power of the law, or undermine the uniform conditions for actors in the internal market. Other articles in the collection were written by Uwe Blaurock, Franco Ferrari, Thomas Kadner Graziano, Felix Maultzsch, and Burghard Piltz. The article can be downloaded for a fee via the Nomos eLibrary.